A Meeting In The Dark
by TheLuLunatic
Summary: Just a currently short, very short, story about a girl wanting to save her sister. Depending on how well this goes I may add more. It's based before Skyrim but that's the closest game to the time period it's in.


It was a normal night for Bellasiel, Dranvius treating her like an abomination and locking her in the basement while he left the house to hunt. She didn't mind being in the basement now that she learned magelight. It used to be hours or days in the darkness with her only companions being the rats running throughout the walls. Even then it wasn't that bad because the man in fancy clothing would take her away for walks in his gardens, or have tea parties that would last for hours with all his funny friends. But of course she would eventually wake up and be back in the void of her house, she hasn't had dreams like that in a long time. Dranvius had lightened up on Bellasiel's punishment over the years though, he had even gotten rid of the rusty chains that bit her wrists and ankles until they grew slick with crimson. It wasn't her fault that she was this way, what she _really_ was, that curiosity and the voice in her nightmares made her read her grandfather's journals. She hid those well, very well, so well that even she could hardly find them in this state. She cast her magelight to find one of her books, "where did I put it?" She pondered out loud. No sounds escaped the basements thick walls so she was free to talk, sing, and scream because no one would hear her anyway. Curiously enough though some sounds slipped in, like the rats as mentioned before, sometimes when she focused she could hear all the way across the bridges to the parties at Riverview. Or maybe not, maybe it was all in her imagination like the cruel voice in her nightmares and the fancy man . . . She redid the spell when it started to fade as she went toward one of the walls. "It has to be here somewhere," '_unless _he_ found it and took it away_.' That thought made her bones chill as she quickened her search. She knelt down toward the small crack in the wall and cleared away some boxes where she thought it might be.

"Hurry up!" A voice ordered in a hushed tone, making Bellasiel tilt her head. They sounded very young. Too young to be out at this hour . . . or were they? Bellasiel was never sure about how many hours she spent in the basement.

"Maybe this isn't a good idea . . ." A familiar voice whimpered.

'_Raina?_' Bellasiel thought as she got on her toes to the hole and attempted to peer through it. She managed to see three sets of feet past the bits of grass that Dranvius let grow to block the crack. He didn't want anyone to know about the basement that his eldest daughter and their family secrets spent time in.

"Awww the little half-breed is scared!" A new voice laughed making Bellasiel want to break its owners' neck.

"I told you she was just a chicken, all elves are." The first voice snorted as two pairs of the feet began walking away.

'_Raina, get back in the house!_' Bellasiel wanted to scream but the fright and anger beat her voice until it hid away in the back of her throat.

"I am not a chicken! Wait up!" Raina called as her feet ran out of view. Bellasiel backed away from the crack and shook her head.

'_No, no, no, no-.'_ She thought before sprinting to the basement hatch. She jumped for it, "come on," she growled upon finding her jump was too short to reach it. The boxes in the room were too short and weak to be of any use as she desperately jumped for it again and again. She shook softly backing away from the hatch. "Open!" She screamed raising a hand toward it, eyes widening when a faint green 'energy' shot from her palm and slammed into the hatch. It clicked and before she could blink flew open making the stairs unfold and slam into the ground. She stood still, stunned only for a moment, before running up the stairs. She managed to pick the lock easily enough, her idea of hiding lockpicks in her corset proved useful, and then carefully lifted the second hatch and rug to reveal the living room. _'If we get caught by _him' . . . Bellasiel thought as she looked up at her Mother's old ebony daggers above the fireplace. She grabbed them and pushed the thought of her possible death aside before she grabbed her cloak and headed out the door. _'I can take the beating like I always do . . . but Raina.'_

It was a warm night with both Masser and Secunda in their waxing state which gave Bellasiel enough darkness to get through the town unseen. Not that many people were out in the first place. She scanned the area, catching a small humanoid shadow run into hiding on the other side of the bridge. '_Where are they going?_' she thought before darting across the bridge. Her eyes slowly adjusted to the dim light while making her way through an ally between two houses. She sprinted to the shadows of _The Great Chapel of Arkay_ her eyes widening at the sight across the street. Four Imperial children stood in front of _the_ abandoned house. The biggest child couldn't have been any older than twelve as he shoved something against the door. His action made the younger children laugh but Bellasiel felt a growl rise in her chest. '_Raina's not with them . . ._' she looked around the area praying her little sister wasn't inside the house.

"I bet she pisses through her petticoat!" The first little voice Bellasiel had heard that night laughed. It belonged to a girl who only looked about eleven or twelve, her gown suggesting wealth. Something banged against the door of the house making Bellasiel's heart jump into her throat. "You're not allowed out until you find the secret!" The girl, who was obviously the leader of the group, called as the banging stopped.

"Which means she'll be in there all night," a girl who looked the same age as Raina's physical age snorted. "It's just a myth to try and scare weak minded children like her." Bellasiel shook, she knew what '_myth_' was told. Everyone in town knew the '_myth_' but only the moron's and the fearful thought it was just that, a myth. Her grandfather's journals told of his dark adventures that happened in that house. _They_ had lived under it in the basement. _They_ still lived there, hiding and operating in the shadows. Bellasiel felt her fangs slice into her tongue as she grew angry while watching the children. She pulled her hood to further cover her face as she struggled against the snarl in her throat.

"What are you doing?" She practically growled at the kids while elongating her strides to get over to them quickly. The boy and the silent girl shrieked and took off before she could question them further. The eldest girl and her friend, who happened to be the ones that coaxed Raina into following them, tried to run but Bellasiel grabbed them by the collars of their dresses. "Where's Raina?" She narrowed her eyes, uncaring that they glown an unnatural red hue, making the younger girl cry.

The eldest just glared and demanded to be put down while the younger girl cried, "we-dared-her-to-go-into-the-abandoned-house!" She said very quickly before begging to be put down. Bellasiel dropped them about a foot from the ground; they scrambled away without another word. She approached the door and tore off the plank that was used to lock her sister inside.

'_I can't believe I'm doing this._' Bellasiel thought pushing away other thoughts to just walk away, '_she's my sister! I'll be damned if I let her get hurt . . .'_ She told herself before shoving the door open. The air was thick with newly disturbed dust that shimmered in the little bit of light that the open door and the boarded window above the door let in. The room was almost silent as she took a few steps inside. It felt freezing inside the house as she heard a soft whimper. "Raina," She whispered and headed toward the table it came from. The little teenage girl, though her body looked just shy of eight years old, ran out from underneath the table to her sister.

"Bells!" She cried and looked up at Bellasiel with tears streaming down her grey cheeks, golden brown, _human_, eyes wide with fear. She clutched the front of her sister's tattered dress with her little fists, Bellasiel wiping away her tears. "T-they-."

"Shh, Raina go home." Bellasiel shook, hearing something move in the shadowed part of the room.

"But the bad men will.-"

"Go. Home." Bellasiel ordered to the frightened girl as a knot formed in her throat. "Run home, lock your door, and wait for father to come home."

"But-!"

"Now," she growled to get her point across. Raina sniffled before bolting toward the door, she looked back at her older sister for a moment, and then ran out of the house. The door slowly creaking shut was the only sound in the large room for several frightening moments.

"Bells, was it?"

Bellasiel reached for her blade be the man was quick.


End file.
